At a Beijing symposium commemorating the 120th anniversary of the birth of the late Chinese leader, Xi hailed Mao and other veteran revolutionaries as "great figures" in fighting against national and class oppression and standing at the forefront of the Chinese revolution and world progress.

Xi said Mao, who was the principal founder of the CPC, the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the People's Republic of China, was a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist and theorist.

Mao is a great figure who changed the face of the nation and led the Chinese people to a new destiny, said Xi.

Revolutionary leaders are not gods, but human beings, Xi said.

He said that people should not worship these leaders like gods or refuse to allow people to point out and correct their errors just because they are great and that people should not totally repudiate them and erase their historical feats just because they made mistakes.